Reddit exodus illustrates state of free speech online

WASHINGTON POST

Some users are finding fault with Reddits failure to protect absolute free speech.

Reddit, the long-time haven of weirdos, perverts and miscreants the internet over, has been, from its beginning, the mainstream bulwark for free speech online.

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But in a strange twist that perfectly illustrates the current culturewide debate around online speech, a group of disgruntled users have begun an exodus off the site - claiming, against all odds, that Reddit is censoring them as a matter of corporate policy.

This is, for the record, the same Reddit that defended Violentacrez, the Texas man who ran forums on beating women and sexualising underage girls. The Reddit that allowed rampant speculation about the Boston bombing, even when it became dangerous. The Reddit that, just this past fall, supported a booming trade in stolen celebrity nude photos, and still, even now, hosts a variety of racist, misogynistic, homophobic and otherwise "NSFL" content that I dare not link to from here.

If this isn't enough free speech, what is?

To understand that question (let alone the answer to it), you have to start with a working knowledge of Reddit's labyrinthine depths. The site is, for the uninitiated, basically a social news service divided into tens of thousands of themed forums, called subreddits. Users submit links, photos and in-jokes to the forums, which are voted up or down by other users. The forums themselves are run by volunteer moderators, or mods, who can basically make and enforce rules as they see fit. In general, corporate Reddit - Advance Media-owned Reddit, US$50-million-funding-round Reddit, only-35-employees Reddit - doesn't step in unless the company is at risk of being sued.

The core philosophy, co-founder Alexis Ohanian explained in a book on Reddit's early days, was "giving the people what they want." Whatever they want. Accordingly, each forum looks a little different. In r/aww - one of my personal favourites - mods ban slurs, harassing comments and anything "sad." In r/thefappening, where users shared the celebrity nudes that ruled September's news cycle, slurs and harassing comments were basically the norm. (And that was, on its own, pretty sad.)

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Reddit exodus illustrates state of free speech online